Among Democrats, support for a higher federal minimum wage is nearly universal. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have made it a component of their presidential platforms. If they aren’t stopped, they could engineer the worst unemployment catastrophe this young nation has ever seen.
We are moving swiftly into the automated era, and millions of minimum wage jobs are going to be replaced by computers. This is a national inevitability, but a $15 minimum wage will ensure that it happens much more quickly than we might have otherwise anticipated.
At some restaurants, the change is already happening. A recent photo was taken at a Hardees where self-serve stations offer customers a 10% discount. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club have been giving customers a self-serve lane or two for several years. And according to a recent survey, 59 percent of Los Angeles employers are considering a switch to automated technology in advance of the coming minimum wage hike.
Politicians do not understand how drastically the American economy is getting ready to change. We’ve been talking about the robotic age for some time, and it is very nearly upon us in a revolutionary way. And a federal wage hike will be just the thing to push us over the tipping point. Companies will have no choice but to make the move prematurely, just so they can stay afloat.
At this point, a federal wage of $15 an hour will only ensure that millions of Americans will be put entirely out of work. Before we do something that will have tragic consequences for the economy as a whole, we’d better make sure we have something in place to deal with a huge segment of the population that will be suddenly unemployed – and, in many cases, unemployable.
If we let the free market take it’s course, we will have plenty of time to prepare. If we go in and demand this wage hike, though, we’re going to have a disaster on our hands before we know what to do about it.
Unfortunately, there is little reason to believe that Democrats care. In fact, they might welcome such a revolution. What better dream for a socialist than a situation where millions of Americans are jobless? When things get desperate enough, they won’t have to argue for a welfare state; the citizens will demand it. And Republicans won’t have any alternative argument because there won’t be any alternatives left.
